Bryopsis Cure: My Battle With Bryopsis Using Fluconazole

[trill22]

My overall results have been very positive for treating both bryopsis and GHA in 3 reef tanks. Unfortunately, I did lose my 4 seahorses in 1 tank - they were eating and swimming ok at first, but then would become very lethargic and died overnight.

A couple things I have noted:
- Treatment seems to work best where light hits the most. I did a second dose on one tank since there was significant bryopsis left after 2.5 weeks, mostly in the shaded areas or deeper crevices of the rocks.

- My corals are looking great! Getting rid of the algae has been a big benefit to coral vitality.

- I've seen no ill-effects on any corals, fish, inverts, clams, etc. Only the seahorses didn't fare well, but not sure if that's due to the fluconazole or not.

- Fluconazole is NOT an overnight miracle! It took a few days to notice thinning, a few more days to have a noticeable difference, and almost the full 2 weeks for it to be gone.

- In my experience, my larger tank responded better than my smaller tanks. Maybe due to the density of the rockwork and amount of light, but it was definitely a big difference!

Hope everyone else has good luck using flucoazole! And crossing my fingers that it stays GONE!!

 

[NCreefguy]

Hey guys, I am needing to do a second dose. Do I need to do anything special (water change, run carbon etc ect) or just dose again? Do I dose the same amount or less since there is some in there?
Thanks

If your nutrients aren't too high,I would just go ahead with your second dose. Use the same amount as you did with the first one.

 

[NCreefguy]

My overall results have been very positive for treating both bryopsis and GHA in 3 reef tanks. Unfortunately, I did lose my 4 seahorses in 1 tank - they were eating and swimming ok at first, but then would become very lethargic and died overnight.

A couple things I have noted:
- Treatment seems to work best where light hits the most. I did a second dose on one tank since there was significant bryopsis left after 2.5 weeks, mostly in the shaded areas or deeper crevices of the rocks.

- My corals are looking great! Getting rid of the algae has been a big benefit to coral vitality.

- I've seen no ill-effects on any corals, fish, inverts, clams, etc. Only the seahorses didn't fare well, but not sure if that's due to the fluconazole or not.

- Fluconazole is NOT an overnight miracle! It took a few days to notice thinning, a few more days to have a noticeable difference, and almost the full 2 weeks for it to be gone.

- In my experience, my larger tank responded better than my smaller tanks. Maybe due to the density of the rockwork and amount of light, but it was definitely a big difference!

Hope everyone else has good luck using flucoazole! And crossing my fingers that it stays GONE!!

I'm sorry that you lost your seahorses. We will make a note of that for future tanks with them. Other than that,I'm glad the treatment took out your bryopsis.

 

[Is null]

Yes it likely will.

dang. I dosed on Friday 03/24 but forgot to remove my poly filter until Sunday. Today should be day 4, and I'm not really seeing any difference on my GHA. I only have enough flucon for one more dose. I also have a bottle of Vibrant on its way and I've never tried it before, should be here around Thursday.

Also, everyone is saying that the light seems to help it kill the algae. I've been running my lights for only 3 hours for the last few weeks trying to bring the GHA under control using traditional methods. Should I kick the lights back on to 10 hour cycles in the hopes that the poly filter didn't remove all of the flucon? Or should I kick my protein skimmer back on now?

Longer term I'm thinking I will wait and see what happens the next few days and then start dosing the Vibrant, and if that doesn't help after a few weeks I will use up the last of my flucon. Sound reasonable, or anyone have an alternate suggestion?

 

[Sharkz]

Just my experience so far to date. As I said before I have been documenting with pictures and will upload everything and a analysis when I'm completely done with the treatment.

9 days in on my first dose. No skimmer for the first 5 days. The GHA actually grew and became thicker in a lot of spots being blasted with light. So i decided to hit the tank with Phosphate RX (even though it had/has the Fluconazole present) to get the PO down even though my Red Sea kit keeps saying I only have 0.04ppm reading. I dosed 45 drops at night. Waited 2 days and noticed my filter socks were loaded with GHA. So yesterday I decided as thick as it was on my rock I would manually pull as much off as I could with a siphon hose. To my surprise it puled right off easier then hell exposing nice pink coraline rock which I haven't seen in months. So something is working. Not sure if its one or the other or a combination of both. Going to wait a few days and hit the tank again with PhosRX. Because that needs the skimmer and a 10 micron sock for 24 hrs. Then dose another round of Fluconole this weekend on day 15 now that the GHA is much shorter and manageable. Hope to knock this crap out of the park once and for all. I'll post updates as I go with a full write up at the end.

I'm beginning to see the light.

 

[MikenGabriel]

Well a few days in on dosing fluconizol and I have lost my mandarin dragonet but I believe that was from my normal 2 part dosing or me stressing her out from pulling her out of the rear sump 3 times now as she kept jumping the wall. I'm not blaming the treatment on her loss for she did fine up until today. On the bright side my corals are thriving like never before. My mystic sunset monti is growing very well thanks in part to a better light program I loaded on AI prime hd. Gonna ride this out for a little longer before dosing phos rx. I'm struggling mostly when I dose Reef Roids due to it having phytoplankton in it as it's main ingredients. In the past anytime I use phytoplankton, my green hair algae explodes. If I don't use it, then corals don't grow very well. Hoping to have success in a few weeks from now.

 

[NCreefguy]

dang. I dosed on Friday 03/24 but forgot to remove my poly filter until Sunday. Today should be day 4, and I'm not really seeing any difference on my GHA. I only have enough flucon for one more dose. I also have a bottle of Vibrant on its way and I've never tried it before, should be here around Thursday.

Also, everyone is saying that the light seems to help it kill the algae. I've been running my lights for only 3 hours for the last few weeks trying to bring the GHA under control using traditional methods. Should I kick the lights back on to 10 hour cycles in the hopes that the poly filter didn't remove all of the flucon? Or should I kick my protein skimmer back on now?

Longer term I'm thinking I will wait and see what happens the next few days and then start dosing the Vibrant, and if that doesn't help after a few weeks I will use up the last of my flucon. Sound reasonable, or anyone have an alternate suggestion?

I would return your lights back to your normal schedule. The light definitely helps the treatment. You can start your skimmer back up if you want to.(I started mine back up around day3 or 4). GHA will take a while to die off and you may even end up running a second dose after 21 days if you still have algae left.

 

[Junwei38]

I was under the impression fluconazole mainly sniped bryopsis and gha is just a sometimes-it-will-work cure.

 

[Azusareefer]

I have a buddy who has a prescription for fluconazole tablets. Will the tablets dissolve the same and work? I don't know anything about pharma so I was not sure if they add something extra (potentially bad for tank) in the tablet version. If not going to give this a try for GHA. Thanks!

 

[Junwei38]

I have a buddy who has a prescription for fluconazole tablets. Will the tablets dissolve the same and work? I don't know anything about pharma so I was not sure if they add something extra (potentially bad for tank) in the tablet version. If not going to give this a try for GHA. Thanks!

Grind them up real good and they will dissolve!

 

[Azusareefer]

Grind them up real good and they will dissolve!

So there is nothing extra in the tablet formula that is different than the capsule?

 

[Junwei38]

So there is nothing extra in the tablet formula that is different than the capsule?

Only the manufacturers will know the difference in composition. But the active ingredient should remain the same.

 

[Slarti]

Quick question to any/all Aussie members on here, have you successfully bought Fluconazole over the counter here or is a prescription needed? Also see Diflucan coming up as an alternative and seems to be available without a prescription, if so it is the same and can or have anyone used it?

Here is some info on it:

DIFLUCAN Tablets contain 50, 100, 150, or 200 mg of fluconazole and the following inactive ingredients: microcrystalline cellulose, dibasic calcium phosphate anhydrous, povidone, croscarmellose sodium, FD&C Red No. 40 aluminum lake dye, and magnesium stearate.

 

[NCreefguy]

Quick question to any/all Aussie members on here, have you successfully bought Fluconazole over the counter here or is a prescription needed? Also see Diflucan coming up as an alternative and seems to be available without a prescription, if so it is the same and can or have anyone used it?

Here is some info on it:

DIFLUCAN Tablets contain 50, 100, 150, or 200 mg of fluconazole and the following inactive ingredients: microcrystalline cellulose, dibasic calcium phosphate anhydrous, povidone, croscarmellose sodium, FD&C Red No. 40 aluminum lake dye, and magnesium stearate.

Diflucan is a brand name of Fluconazole. Same medication.

 

[Azusareefer]

Diflucan is a brand name of Fluconazole. Same medication.

Any idea if the inactive ingredients in tablets will do any harm?

 

[NCreefguy]

Any idea if the inactive ingredients in tablets will do any harm?

There's been several people that have used the tablets instead of the capsules. It worked for a few of them but I think there were a couple that it didn't. None of them reported losing anything in their tanks because of the tablets though if I remember correctly.

 

[Slarti]

Diflucan is a brand name of Fluconazole. Same medication.

Excellent, for some reason it appears you can get that over the counter but not the originally named product, go figure.

 

[Slarti]

There's been several people that have used the tablets instead of the capsules. It worked for a few of them but I think there were a couple that it didn't. None of them reported losing anything in their tanks because of the tablets though if I remember correctly.

I am by no means an expert but I would think there will be similar/some inactive ingredients in the capsule as well. Of course the tablet will have some additional to make it a tablet?

 

[Uwharrie]

Three weeks out and the GHA is as bad as ever. Just did a second treatment. Not sure why it is not working for me, but seems with me and this hobby what works for others does not for me. And yes I am doing all the recommended things one does with a reef tank. Fingers crossed second dose works

 

[prsnlty]

Couple of people have grossly overdosed this medication to no ill effects. I would say 20mg/gallon is considered conservative.

Although this may be true, also true that others had losses by doing so. I think it all depends on water volume/tank size and how much algae there is to die and clean up crew to eat it.